Your website is a powerful marketing tool. It is likely the first thing many of your prospects will see when they research your company, so it’s important that you provide them with as much relevant and useful information as possible.
To ensure your website is a useful resource for prospects, careful attention to the elements present on the website is crucial. Let’s take a closer look at some of the key elements that can improve the performance of your MSP website.
#1: Phone Number in the Header
Your prospects have questions, and in some cases emergencies. To ensure they can reach you as quickly as necessary, it’s important that your phone number be easy to find. Make it prominent enough that new visitors to your site will see it as soon as they arrive, in large font in the header.
#2: Eye-Catching Headline
The average user spends less than five seconds on the homepage before deciding whether they’ve found what they need. The content they see when they arrive on your site is incredibly important for this reason.
Make the best impression possible with a strong headline that clearly demonstrates the value of your offering. Speak to the benefits of what you provide with specific, action-oriented statements.
#3: Call-to-Action Above the Fold
Include a call-to-action (CTA) above the page fold so those ready to act immediately know where to click and what to do next. This CTA should match with your headline and entice your visitors to click.
You may decide to include a form right on your homepage or have a CTA button which directs visitors to a contact form or landing page. The key is to make an enticing offer and avoid terms like “submit” or “click here.”
#4: Free Consultation Offer
One example of a CTA would be an offer for a free consultation or network assessment. This requires quite a bit of commitment from the prospect but it’s a great way to get the conversation started.
If someone clicks on one of your call-to-action buttons for a consultation, they are clearly interested in what you have to offer, so do everything you can to push them over the edge.
#5: Lead Magnet Download
The vast majority of visitors are still in the research phase, looking for information about local IT providers as they evaluate options. In such an early research phase, they are unlikely to contact you directly.
A lead magnet allows you to provide something of value to these prospects. It’s a low-stakes conversion point, allowing you to capture their contact information without requiring a commitment to a phone call or meeting.
If you’re able to peak their curiosity by offering an eBook or downloadable, they may be willing to share their email address in exchange for the free offer. This is a great way to gain credibility while capturing leads.
#6: Chat Feature
Chat boxes are becoming more prevalent on service-oriented websites, allowing visitors to ask immediate questions in real time. They frequently convert at a higher rate than phone numbers, and they are largely passive, allowing you to grab a percentage of visitors you might otherwise not have connected with.
One of the best ways to implement chat is to offer a live chat box that is monitored by your team. That way the chat can be directed to support or sales depending on the situation. Some chat software will even connect to your internal chat solution such as slack, making it even more convenient to monitor.
#7: Social Proof
One of the most effective ways to engage prospective clients and showcase your expertise is to demonstrate past success. It’s one of the first things someone will ask on a sales call and one of the first they will look for on an MSP website – whom have you worked with before?
A lineup of companies in the region you’ve helped can highlight at a glance your expertise and longevity in the field. To go above and beyond, consider creating a long-form case study that walks through the specific problem you solved for your client and what that solution ultimately looked like.
Keeping testimonials fresh can be a challenge, but solutions like SimpleSat allow you to gather testimonials and publish them directly to your site quickly and easily. If you’re a Pronto client, you can register to be part of the free beta program at SimpleSat.io.
Additional areas where you can highlight social proof of your services include certifications you and your staff hold, and awards you have received for your work, and video testimonials.
#8: Social Media Links in Your Footer
When someone lands on your website, you want them to read your unique value proposition, evaluate your service offerings, and click on a call to action — not just visit one of your social channels.
Consider placing all your social media links in the footer of your site. This allows prospects to evaluate your profiles if they are researching companies, but doesn’t clutter the header and distract from your core message.
#9: About Us Page
One of the first places prospective clients look before picking up the phone or making a buying decision is your About Us page. They want to learn what sets you apart, how your company was founded, and how long you have been in business.
Provide details about your company and overall experience in the industry to support your claims of expertise. Most importantly, let your personality shine through. Your prospects are trying to determine if you’re a company they want to work with. Being memorable might just give you an upper hand on your competition.
#10: Dedicated Service Pages
Each of your key services should have a separate page on your website – IT support, IT consulting, VoIP, disaster recovery, cloud computing, etc. Search engines are crawling and analyzing site content based on the relationships between these keywords so it’s difficult to rank for a keyword if it’s not included on your site.
Having said that, 20-30 pages of keyword-oriented content can quickly clutter navigation and make your site difficult to use, which can ultimately hurt your SEO efforts. We recommend focusing on 5-8 services which would be included in your site navigation. The content of these pages should be written for your prospects – not just search engines.
#11: Industries Served Pages
Create a separate page on your site for the main verticals you focus on. Not only does this highlight your ability to work within a specific field that might have certain IT requirements; it makes it more likely you will rank for important keywords like “IT Support for Accounting Firms in Chicago”.
Much like your service pages, you don’t want to overdo it. Find a good balance by highlighting 1-3 industries in which you have specific expertise. If you have a unique story to tell, case studies, and examples of your work, they’re worth highlighting.
#12: Referral Program Page
For most MSPs, referrals are the most reliable and effective source of new business. Whatever you can do to generate more referrals is an important part of the lead-generation process.
You may want to include some incentives to further encourage referrals such as free giftcards, giveaways, or charity donations.
#13: Thought Leadership Oriented Blog
If you’re a Pronto client, you have access to syndicated blog posts about IT related topics. The syndicated blog is great for keeping your blog active and the blog posts can even be used in your monthly email newsletter.
To really stand out, take your blog to the next level by customizing your blog posts to your location and target buyer personas. This will make it more likely to resonate with your audience and can even improve your site’s SEO.
Good blog content provides value and answers common questions and problems your prospects have. That can mean:
- Blog posts about recent security threats to small companies and what they can do to be protected.
- Discussions of new technologies and how they integrate into the office.
- Overviews of industry best practices for security, cloud migration, IoT, and more.
The goal of this content is not just to provide value, but to position yourself as an expert in the field – one they can trust above and beyond your competitors.
Ensuring Your MSP Website is a Marketing Success
With the elements in this article, your MSP website will be a more effective lead-generating tool for your business. By engaging your target prospects, providing as much value as possible and establishing yourself as a thought leader in the field, you can convert a higher percentage of visitors and build a stronger relationship with your existing clients.
